WikiLeaks: US offered to bankroll New Zealand piracy crackdown

New Wikileaks cables indicate that the US has been keeping a close watch on IP …

Making your country's views known is a principal function of foreign embassies, but the US goes much further. According to cables released by WikiLeaks, the US embassy in New Zealand urged Uncle Sam to fork over about half a million New Zealand dollars back in 2005 to bankroll a private intellectual property enforcement unit run by major rightsholders in the region.

Operated on an informal basis by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), the US identified the "unit" as the only potential bulwark against music piracy in the region.

"It is developing an intelligence framework to identify local producers of pirated works, distributors, criminal networks and recipients and to work with relevant government, law enforcement, customs and other authorities and stakeholders," the embassy's cable noted. "The unit aims to prevent piracy by sharing intelligence with other organizations and agencies, lobbying political parties and the judiciary on the harm to industry and supporting public awareness campaigns."

The outfit would also launch "enforcement operations" targeting makers and distributors of illegal material, and it would "train law enforcement and other agencies in the implementation of intellectual property legislation through identifying offenses and disrupting piracy activities."

The cable drew up a recommended budget of NZ$533,000 (US $386,158) for the operation, with over $200,000 going to salaries and the rest funding start-up and operating costs.

A proposed US budget for the New Zealand/South Pacific IP enforcement program.

Repeated offers

But this isn't the only way that the US tried to wield influence on the region; it's also willing to help countries write their laws. A May 2009 cable indicates that the US pretty much offered carte blanche help to New Zealand as it was rethinking its "three strikes" illegal file sharing law. "Embassy in the meantime has repeated its offer of assistance to [Government of New Zealand] officials to offer consultations with [United States Government] copyright experts through a [Digital Video Conference]," the missive explained.

As we reported at the time, New Zealand's government eventually yanked the punitive Section 92A of the bill, denounced by content providers and ISPs as vague and impossible to implement. But the US seemed confident at the time that New Zealand would eventually come through with a new edition of the law.

Embassy officials also made clear their irritation with those who opposed industry-friendly copyright changes.

In the meantime, the IPR community has engaged the services of Price Waterhouse consultants to do a cost-benefit analysis on the potential losses to the NZ economy if the new S92A fails to be enacted. The IPR industry wants to be prepared to counter any false claims by opponents of the new provision who successfully managed to monopolize the local media's attention in the last round.

In the end, the US Trade Representative decided not to put New Zealand on its Special 301 Priority list—the watchdog list for countries of whose IP standards the US does not approve.

"While there is additional work to be done to strengthen the law and enhance enforcement," a March 2009 cable concluded, "Post recommends the better course of action is to continue engagement with the GNZ and monitor the progress of IP legislation rather than place New Zealand on this year's watch list."

Ah yes, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of my tax money to police other countries is, of course, money well spent. I mean, if a US megacorp can't get their money from New Zealanders, how will their employees put food on the table?

And people think wikileaks is a bad thing. Not that we can really do anything about it, but it is nice to know. As Glassy said. Some of us are very sorry for how our idiotic oligarchy insists on ramming its stupidity down the rest of the worlds throat. I would like to assure you that a either an immanent collapse or a violent revolution should be coming a long soon, but that would probably be a lie. Our politicians and CEOs have become pretty good at holding together the instability to maintain profits at the expense of the American people, and as for the violent revolution, well that ain't coming no matter how bad it gets, unless the beer dries up, the dollar menu cheeseburgers vanish, and all reality TV gets canceled. The American people are just to apathetic to care.

I don't have a problem with the US supporting foreign countries with criminal copyright infringement. It would certainly be good for US creative industries if China, for example, paid for some of our stuff. And putting some pressure on countries to adopt similar laws to our own seems ok (even if I don't like our current laws). You want an even playing field, right? But why would we be trying to push even more draconian laws than our own on foreign countries? There are big problems with all aspects of this story, but it's that last thing that really bothers me.

It's really too bad that a majority of US voters just don't give a damn about things like this. Even if they did, we don't have many options to choose from on the ballot, it's either corporate lackey #1 or #2.

Isn't America damn near bankrupt? And yet they are talking about spending money on crap like this? WTF?

It was 2005. Well before any problems happened. Believe it or not, one should actually support something like this, since it seems to me that they are talking about PHYSICAL piracy and sales, not a neckbeard with WiFi. Like downloading and burning thousands of copies of Windows 7 to sell on the street. While they might be innocuous, usually the huge physical pirates are funded by shady, mob connected individuals. If piracy helps supplement human trafficking or illegal immigration (a real problem down there) then it is money well spent. IMHO. If it is to criminalize butter filled sheepherders from downloading Far Cry then forget it.

Wow, slow news day or what? Just because it came from something leaked doesn't make it news. We spent $800,000 in "stimulus funds" to study the impact of a "genital-washing program" on men in South Africa. Using $500k to NZ to IP interests probably doesn't even hit a blip in the trade journals.

Wow, slow news day or what? Just because it came from something leaked doesn't make it news. We spent $800,000 in "stimulus funds" to study the impact of a "genital-washing program" on men in South Africa. Using $500k to NZ to IP interests probably doesn't even hit a blip in the trade journals.

Yep, lets cover it up and sweet it under the carpet instead.

After all IP does not really affect anyone of us, it's just the corporations doing some business.

Most Americans do not share priorities with our politicians. We tell them what we want, but they ignore us. They only listen if you have a TON of money you are willing to "donate." What do you do when they only people you have to stop this corruption are the very people benefiting from said corruption? Seriously. If you have a viable and practical solution, please share it with us.

Most Americans do not share priorities with our politicians. We tell them what we want, but they ignore us. They only listen if you have a TON of money you are willing to "donate." What do you do when they only people you have to stop this corruption are the very people benefiting from said corruption? Seriously. If you have a viable and practical solution, please share it with us.

That's a good point. Politicians won't listen to us if we don't have tons of money. We need a system where every person represented by a politician could indicate if they like a particular politician, or even request that he be replaced. We would then need people to actually use that system.

Most Americans do not share priorities with our politicians. We tell them what we want, but they ignore us. They only listen if you have a TON of money you are willing to "donate." .[...] Seriously. If you have a viable and practical solution, please share it with us.

Wow, slow news day or what? Just because it came from something leaked doesn't make it news. We spent $800,000 in "stimulus funds" to study the impact of a "genital-washing program" on men in South Africa. Using $500k to NZ to IP interests probably doesn't even hit a blip in the trade journals.

yeah, who cares, they are spending other people's money, so 500k is nothing.To whoever posted about debt, you are right, US is broke. All the money went to bail out megabanks (over 1T and counting! Just think aobut it, 1T dollars!). The only thing that keeps it together is bread and circuses (i.e. shiny toys and junk food bought on credit card where the minimum payment is past due for 3 months). Once the music stops, a lot of people will end up with no chairs to sit on. (Bankers, politicians and megacorp management excluded ofcourse).

In the end, the US Trade Representative decided not to put New Zealand on its Special 301 Priority list—the watchdog list for countries of whose IP standards the US does not approve.

And why is being on the list a problem for other countries? Why do they give two shits that the US doesn't approve of how they handle their own IP standards? I really don't see why it would matter to any sovereign nation that some other country doesn't approve of some aspect of their legal system.

In the end, the US Trade Representative decided not to put New Zealand on its Special 301 Priority list—the watchdog list for countries of whose IP standards the US does not approve.

And why is being on the list a problem for other countries? Why do they give two shits that the US doesn't approve of how they handle their own IP standards? I really don't see why it would matter to any sovereign nation that some other country doesn't approve of some aspect of their legal system.

Considering they recently changed their labour laws to accommodate US film studios....I think they care...alot.

Most Americans do not share priorities with our politicians. We tell them what we want, but they ignore us. They only listen if you have a TON of money you are willing to "donate." What do you do when they only people you have to stop this corruption are the very people benefiting from said corruption? Seriously. If you have a viable and practical solution, please share it with us.

That's a good point. Politicians won't listen to us if we don't have tons of money. We need a system where every person represented by a politician could indicate if they like a particular politician, or even request that he be replaced. We would then need people to actually use that system.

I see what you did there. Part of the problem is that people keep voting for Democrats and Republicans, because of course they're in power and they've come up with ways to stay there. Sure, the elections aren't unfair, but the campaigns are. As already noted, see http://www.fixcongressfirst.org/

In the end, the US Trade Representative decided not to put New Zealand on its Special 301 Priority list—the watchdog list for countries of whose IP standards the US does not approve.

And why is being on the list a problem for other countries? Why do they give two shits that the US doesn't approve of how they handle their own IP standards? I really don't see why it would matter to any sovereign nation that some other country doesn't approve of some aspect of their legal system.

Because the 301 priority list is more than name-calling. It influence trade policy with that country, which is why the US TRADE Representative is what decides it. Say what you will about the US, but they are a significant trade partner to many nations, and being on their good side may outweigh the costs of 'IP' enforcement.

Please note that I don't approve of this kind of behavior. It was disgusting when other countries shoved their 'IP' laws on us, and it's disgusting for us to do it to others. The tactics used here completely undermine national sovereignty, and we don't even have the decency to try and force positive aspects like 'fair use' on other nations while forcing the negative ones.

We know... We have partially lost control of our ruling class leeches. The PEOPLE of the US who give a shit are in the process of taking control back from the ruling class. First, the budgets will be cut and starve these corrupt tools. Second, the process of voting nearly all incumbents out and getting fiscally conservative Libertarian politicians in office is underway.

When the US leads by example and being the beacon of freedom, the Nations of the World will want to be by our side. This strong arming nations BS has got to stop. Its a waste of money too.

In the end, the US Trade Representative decided not to put New Zealand on its Special 301 Priority list—the watchdog list for countries of whose IP standards the US does not approve.

And why is being on the list a problem for other countries? Why do they give two shits that the US doesn't approve of how they handle their own IP standards? I really don't see why it would matter to any sovereign nation that some other country doesn't approve of some aspect of their legal system.

Considering they recently changed their labour laws to accommodate US film studios....I think they care...alot.

That doesn't answer my question. Why do they care? What happens to you if your name ends up on this list that only the US Government really cares anything about? Changing labor laws to accommodate an industry has a concrete effect (that being that it will bring millions of dollars and lots of jobs into the country). Having your country end up on a "we disapprove of your laws" list doesn't seem to me to have any concrete penalties attached to it.

What do you do when they only people you have to stop this corruption are the very people benefiting from said corruption? Seriously. If you have a viable and practical solution, please share it with us.

You've already come up with an elegant solution to that problem; the Second Amendment.

i live in NZ. this has resulted in the nz government rushing through regulations under urgency. it was tacked on to the christchurch earthquake emergancey relief bill in order to pass it without proper scrutiny. the law basically says that you are issued infrigment notices without any evidence. if you wish to go to court to fight it. then you must prove yourself innocent.

“122MA Infringement notice as evidence of copyright infringement“(1) In proceedings before the Tribunal, an infringement notice is conclusive evidence of the following:“(a) that each incidence of file sharing identified in the notice constituted an infringement of the right owner's copyright in the work identified:“(b) that the information recorded in the infringement notice is correct:“(c) that the infringement notice was issued in accordance with this Act.“(2) An account holder may submit evidence, or give reasons, that show that any 1 or more of the presumptions in subsection (1) do not apply with respect to any particular infringement identified in an infringement notice.“(3) If an account holder submits evidence or gives reasons as referred to in subsection (2), the rights owner must satisfy the Tribunal that the particular presumption or presumptions are correct.

your also not aloud to be represented by a lawyer at the tribunal. also we have had holiwood push through other laws. for instance anyonw in the movie or video game now has zero employment laws and are all by law treated like a contractor. just like the american goverment ours is run by corporations. democracy is just a smoke screen to placate the population. both our main parties voted yes for this law as they are all in the pocket

Matthew Lasar / Matt writes for Ars Technica about media/technology history, intellectual property, the FCC, or the Internet in general. He teaches United States history and politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz.